President FRANK called the meeting to order at 12:14 pm. Rotarians then stood for the Pledge of Allegiance led by PP JACK KELLY. President 
FRANK graciously welcomed those members who were joining via Zoom: CYNTHIA LUEDTKE, GEORGE STAFFORD. JACK HIGGINS, JOANNE KAVALARIS, JULIE ROSE, SRIJOY ADITYA, KAREN BERNER and BRUCE FITZGERALD.
President FRANK’s team for the day included
- Greeters: ANNE ARJANI, MADELEINE FACKLER, FRANK VERLOT and CINDY BOGARD O’GORMAN.
- Thought for the day: AMRI SHAHPURI.
- Cookie Monster: LYNN WILSON-ROBERTS.
- Recognition: CAROL DABB.
- Rotator Writer: MADELEINE FACKLER.
- Photographer: STEVE POMEROY.
- Publisher: ANNIE JU.
- Editor: CYNTHIA LUEDTKE.
- Tech Team: LEE CODDING and MIKE KERR.
- Website and Zoom: STEVE POMEROY and DAVID GREEN.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The thought for the day came from AMRI SHAHPURI and The Essential Rumi:
“Stay together, friends. Don’t scatter and sleep. Our friendship is made of being awake.”
She felt that this was a great message for Rotarians since she knows it takes active participation to enjoy the friendship and community that Rotary builds, and she values being a new member of the group.
INTRODUCTIONS of GUESTS
KATHY LERA led the Introduction portion of the meeting, which proved to be
easier than usual as there were no Rotarians with Guests.
Visiting Rotarians: Louisa Roberts joined from the Cupertino Rotary Club, where she is currently serving as President. Terry Mullen was also present from Cupertino, where she serves as their CFO. Ginny Lear was present from the Palo Alto Rotary in honor of the recently deceased PP MARGE BRUNO, whose birthday would have been this past week. MARGE BRUNO had been her Los Altos Rotary sponsor. In MARGE BRUNO’s honor, Ginny joined the President’s Club.
NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM
Next week’s program will cover the History of Stanford Women’s Tennis and its 45+ years of success. Frankie Brennan will be our speaker and will share his thoughts on the many factors that have contributed to the team’s achievements as well as his outlook for the upcoming tennis season. In addition, he plans to comment on the state of college athletics today.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
President FRANK completed his six-week overview of the Pillars of our Club.
LARRY CHU Sr (a member for 45 years, 11 months) has been an active participant in LARC’s annual events since he opened his iconic restaurant in 1970.
PP MEL KAHN (49 years, 11 months) has served in numerous senior leadership roles at LARC, LAVA, El Camino Hospital Foundation and Los Altos Golf & Country Club. He has been recognized for his financial contributions as a Paul Harris Fellow, Guy Shoup Fellow, Los Altos Rotary Legacy Member, and Los Altos Rotary Benefactor. It was great to have him present at the meeting.
PP SAM HARDING (52 years, 11 months – wow !!) has also served in numerous senior leadership roles at LARC, President of FAITP, founder of LACF, founder of LARF, Board Member of El Camino YMCA, Past Chair of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce. He too is a Paul Harris Fellow and Rotary Benefactor.
AARON NEUFELD recognized three people for their sustained generosity to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) and thus the club’s ability to
positively change lives at home and around the world. With $1,000 donated, one becomes a Paul Harris Fellow. With an additional $1,000 donation, you 
become a +1, +2 for an additional $2,000 given, and so on. At this week’s meeting, JANIS ZINN was recognized for being a +1 Paul Harris Fellow, PETE DAILEY for being a +3 Paul Harris Fellow, and CINDY BOGARD O’GORMAN for being a +5 Paul Harris Fellow. A special thank you to each of them!
September Birthdays
6 – PAT FARRELL, KATHY LERA, BROOKE SCHILLER
7 – PENNY LAVE
8 – SALLY MEADOWS
11 – JEANNINE ANTYPAS, PP DAVID SMITH
12 – LARRY CHU, Sr.
14 – JANET HARDING
15 – SANDY GAUDIE
16 – PP MEL KAHN, STEVE MAGOWAN
17 – VICKY BROWNE
23 – ANNE ARJANI
28 – SANDY MINGIA
PP HARRY PRICE shared details about the upcoming Rotary Collaborative
Impact Summit 2026 on September 19th at the San Jose Conference Center. In Rotary, you can support specific causes AND join collective efforts. This year, there will be tables for all the different Rotary clubs AND tables for specific non-profit efforts. Our club will be represented across four tables: one for the club and one each for our efforts in World Community Services, Climate Action, and BooksPlus. There will also be great speakers (including Kevin Brookhauser, who will be speaking on an effort he is championing to help teens use AI without losing the human part). As an added incentive, registration fees will be reimbursed by our club. Seventeen of our members have already registered. Details, including how to register, can be found at:
Rotary Collaborative Impact Summit 2026, 150 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95113-2005, United States, 19 September 2026 | AllEvents
LINA BROYDO shared a video she clipped from a recent Jeopardy show where the correct Question was "What is Rotary?” The answer: Started in 1905, meetings for this civilian service club revolved around many offices, thus the name. Fun to see Rotary included in this game show!
JANIS ZINN and WENDY WALLEIGH shared how Rotary is responding to the devastating flooding that occurred at the Nepal / China border on August 26th. LARC has a longstanding relationship with the people in Nepal and there are multiple ways individuals can and are assisting through Rotary.
To start, our club’s World Community Service Committee (WCS) quickly approved $2,000 to go towards Nepal flood victims. Of that $2,000, $1,000 will go to the Club project of our long-time
colleague Prabhat in the Rotary Club of Kantipur in Kathmandu. This donation will provide clothing for some of the hundreds of rural, mostly illiterate women and their children who have arrived in Kathmandu with just the dirty clothes on their backs. Further, based on guidance from District 5170’s Governor, the remaining WCS $1,000 allocation will be given to the Bhotekoshi Flood Relief Response Fund organized by District 3292 in Nepal. If you wish to make additional donations, you can make them directly to the District 3292 Fund (https://relief.rotarydistrict3292.org.np/) or to LAREF, specifying it to go to WCS’ Nepal actions.
Once it is clear if and how much LARC Board and LAREF will provide to supplement WCS’ cash, we will determine if all the funds will go to District 3292 in Nepal. Once decided, we will wire transfer the money “in bulk” to the appropriate Nepal fund.
Rotarians on the Go: the Dukes of Uke (with their ukuleles) provided support and cheer to GARY MAGGARD, who is currently at Cedar Crest Rehabilitation Center. A good time was had by all.
Next week – Cuppa Joe this upcoming Tuesday (September 8th) at 8 am at Holders
NANCY TRAFICANTI is hosting a Dine Around next Wednesday, Sept 9th, with dinner overlooking her vineyards. The event was sold out shortly after the meeting, but folks can join the waitlist via ClubRunner in case any spots open up.
On behalf of the Social Committee, SHARI ELMER asked people to look for a survey that was released via email on Friday, September 4th. The survey is asking the likelihood of individuals being able and interested in attending four social events this year: 1) Holiday Party in early December; 2) Chinese New Year’s Dinner at Chef Chu’s; 3) Valentine’s Day Dinner at the Rustic House Annex for couples and singles alike; and 4) A Progressive dinner (which the club had done historically and where participants move between houses/locations for each meal course). The goal of the survey is to calibrate interest before deposits are made for different venues.
RECOGNITION
CAROL DABB led a robust Recognition session (given that we had been unable to cover this in previous weeks).
BROOKE SCHILLER kicked off the volunteer component by joining the President’s Club in honor of the ups and downs of life and that life still goes on. Her brother passed away last week (PSA: please do your health screenings), her son just got engaged, and we are only one FAITP shirt sale away from meeting the group’s goal.
KATHY LERA joined the Presidents Club in honor of PP MARGE BRUNO.
GAEANN SPENCE shared that her daughter was recently recognized by the Silicon Valley Journal as one of this year’s 40 under 40 rising stars in the local business world.
MJ LOMAX joined the President’s Club in recognition of MANDY BACH, who shared her experience as a Red Badger in this week’s Los Altos Town Crier.
VICKI OLDBERG joined the President’s Club in honor of having all of her four grandchildren now in college.
DIANA NEIMAN joined the President’s Club and is donating $1,000 to support Nepal.
KAREN BERNER joined the President’s Club to help support the work in Nepal and expressed her appreciation for being able to stay connected with the group even though she usually is only able to join remotely.
CAROB DABB then moved to asking various folks questions about FAITP.
CLAY HOLSTINE answered that his favorite job this year was following TOM JOHNSON around for three days to figure out what he will need to do next year in Operations.
MEL KAHN joined the President's Club.
GERRI ACRES was asked what she felt were the two easiest jobs at FAITP. She immediately responded that none are easy, but she would recommend working at the Chef Chu booth since the salad literally sells itself and working at the Information Booth where you are in a contained space and get to welcome people when they arrive at the park.
CAROL DABB shared that TOM JOHNSON has been quoted as saying that he thought Traffic and driving the Shuttle were the easiest roles, which STEVE MAGOWAN jumped in to join the President’s Club for NOT having to do Traffic this year.
TONY BLAGROVE said he felt the hardest job was Operations but acknowledged that DICK SIMKO and TOM JOHNSON have made it a well-oiled machine.
AARON NEUFELD joined the President’s Club after sharing how impressed he was by the music offered at the far end of the park.
DICK SIMKO said the best thing about FAITP was the money that was raised that we could then use to help others. As for an activity, he still enjoys Mark-the-Park.
President FRANK ELMER diplomatically responded that his favorite part about the community stage this year was all the people who showed up to participate. He joined (his own) President’s Club with his answer.
To end the discussion, ANNE KEARNS was asked who her favorite Rotarian was at FAITP this year. She, of course, shared that it was the director of the event, TOM JOHNSON (also her husband).
So far, FAITP has made $146K. With a $5,000 commission check coming in later this year, we will clear $150,000. So, excellent results!
FEATURED PROGRAM:
FP JOE EYRE introduced Margaret Abe-Koga, one of the first two Asian
American women to serve on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in its 175-year history. She represents us in Los Altos, District 5, which covers the area from Palo Alto to Almaden.
As a child, Margaret served as a translator for her Japanese immigrant parents before attending Harvard. She is now helping to shape policy at the local, regional, and state level and holds a deep commitment to service. Prior to this current role, Margaret held many public leadership roles, including serving as the first Asian American female mayor of Mountain View. Margaret and her husband have two college-age daughters 
and, adversaries beware, she was a member of the 2002 National Kendo Japanese Martial Art team.
Margaret started her talk by paying homage to PP MARGE BRUNO, whom she deeply admired. She also shared that she went to Harvard in part thanks to Rotary who provided her with a needed scholarship, and is currently a member of the Mountain View Rotary Club.
Margaret said that she is often asked: “What does a County do?” Her simplest answer is that it provides a social safety net for the community. It is responsible for public health and mental health services, Child Protective Services, the Sheriff's Department, including the jails in the county, as well as the fire services for multiple communities. With one out of four Californians currently on Medi-Cal, the four public hospitals in the district serve as a critical resource, along with the three trauma centers and the only burn center in Northern California until San Luis Obispo.
Key support provided by the County for Los Altos is around Affordable Housing. The county has been overseeing the first 100% affordable housing complex in Los Altos on Distel Circle, which has been designed to be environmentally sustainable and financially viable (through its modular design and use of mass timber). The county has also been overseeing workshops (in partnership with LAMVCF) to help individuals, particularly immigrants, apply for US passports, including covering the cost.
In line with the title of Margaret’s talk, “Collaboration and Innovation in a time of Scarcity”, Margaret shared that this is the most challenging time she has seen in 20 years of public service. District 5’s county budget is $14.7B, the fifth largest in the state. It is required to be balanced each year by law, and Margaret worked hard this past year to align needed cuts to still support key priorities (as opposed to cuts across the board) while maintaining as many services as possible (since it is hard to bring back a service once it is completely cut). One program that was saved was Allcove, a mental health service in Palo Alto tailored for young people aged 12–25. Margaret did this by finding lower-cost ways to run it through a partnership with an existing non-profit, along with getting financial support from the City of Palo Alto and a local Foundation. She feels the program will be stronger because of this partnership and hopes that when times are better, it can be expanded. Her vision is to eventually have this type of service in every community in District 5. Another program that Margaret was able to save (albeit in a reduced form) was a public mobile health clinic at De Anza College. It is open every Wednesday and covers a variety of services, including offering vaccines. It helps fill the void in public health offerings between Palo Alto and San Jose.
Another priority from her lived experience is Margaret’s commitment to support seniors. Her parents spoke no English and lived with her until they passed, so Margaret went to all their health care appointments. In Santa Clara County, there are approximately 400,000 individuals over the age of 60, and District 5 is home to 100,000 of them. She has been working with local non-profits to offer services focused on this population. One example is Saved By Nature, which sponsors hikes in the area for seniors. Most recently, they led a hike in the Baylands for those 50+. This past year, Margaret sponsored eight interns who worked on a variety of projects, including one focused on food insecurity faced by seniors. A key finding was that the dominant barrier for seniors to access food was distance (not financial). As a result, the group is currently investigating food delivery options. Margaret herself was an intern under Anna Eshoo, which helped launch her commitment to public service, so she is keen to pay that forward by hosting a robust intern program out of her office every year. One intern this past summer was Raven Dailey (PETE DAILEY’s child), so yet another Los Altos Rotary connection!
If you are interested in learning more about District 5 activities or perhaps want to publicize an event, Margaret’s office publishes a newsletter every Friday. You can subscribe via the following link: https://d5.santaclaracounty.gov/about-district-5/subscribe-district-five-newsletter
Margaret closed by sharing that she is happy to meet with anyone in the
district and always welcomes feedback and/or the sharing of ideas to help support the community.
President FRANK presented a book written and signed by Margaret called “Building a Dream” from Linden Tree Books. He then adjourned the meeting right on time at 1:30 pm.
